subterfuge

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: sub=ter=fuge

CIDE DICTIONARY

subterfuge, n. [F., from LL. subterfugium, fr. L. subterfugere to flee secretly, to escape; subter under + fugere to flee. See Fugitive.].

 That to which one resorts for escape or concealment; an artifice employed to escape censure or the force of an argument, or to justify opinions or conduct; a shift; an evasion.  [1913 Webster]
"Affect not little shifts and subterfuges, to avoid the force of an argument."  [1913 Webster]
"By a miserable subterfuge, they hope to render this position safe by rendering it nugatory."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

subterfuge, n.
1 a an attempt to avoid blame or defeat esp. by lying or deceit. b a statement etc. resorted to for such a purpose.
2 this as a practice or policy.

Etymology

F subterfuge or LL subterfugium f. L subterfugere escape secretly f. subter beneath + fugere flee

THESAURUS

subterfuge

airtight secrecy, alibi, apology, art, artful dodge, artifice, bag of tricks, bamboozlement, befooling, bickering, blind, bluff, bluffing, boggling, bosey, burial, burying, calculated deception, captiousness, catch, caviling, cheat, chicane, chicanery, chouse, circumvention, cloak, close secrecy, closeness, clouding, color, concealedness, concealment, conning, conspiracy, contrivance, coup, cover, cover story, cover-up, covering, covering up, covertness, craft, crypticness, curve, curve-ball, cute trick, darkening, deceit, deceiving, deception, deceptiveness, defrauding, delusion, delusiveness, design, device, dirty deal, dirty trick, discreetness, discretion, dishonesty, dodge, dodging, double-dealing, dupery, enmeshment, ensnarement, entanglement, entrapment, equivocation, evasion, evasiveness, excuse, expedient, facade, fakement, fallaciousness, fallacy, falseness, fast deal, feint, fencing, fetch, ficelle, flimflam, flimflammery, fond illusion, fooling, fraud, front, gambit, game, gimmick, gloss, googly, grift, guise, hairsplitting, hallucination, handle, hedging, hiddenness, hiding, hocus-pocus, hoodwinking, hugger-mugger, hugger-muggery, illusion, interment, intrigue, invisibility, joker, juggle, jugglery, kidding, knavery, lame excuse, little game, locus standi, logic-chopping, maneuver, mask, masking, mirage, move, mystification, nit-picking, obscuration, obscurement, occultation, ostensible motive, outwitting, overreaching, paltering, parrying, pass, pettifoggery, phantasm, plot, ploy, poor excuse, pretense, pretension, pretext, prevarication, protestation, public motive, pussyfooting, put-off, putting away, putting on, quibbling, racket, red herring, refuge, ruse, scheme, screen, screening, scurvy trick, secrecy, secretion, secretiveness, secretness, self-deception, semblance, sham, shift, shifting, show, shuffling, sidestepping, sleight, sleight of hand, sleight-of-hand trick, smoke screen, snow job, song and dance, spoofery, spoofing, stalking-horse, stratagem, strategy, swindling, tactic, tergiversation, the dark, trichoschistism, trick, trickery, trickiness, tricking, uncommunicativeness, varnish, veil, victimization, vision, wile, willful misconception, wily device, wishful thinking

ROGET THESAURUS

subterfuge

Pretext

N pretext, pretense, pretension, plea, allegation, advocation, ostensible motive, ostensible ground, ostensible reason, phony reason, excuse, subterfuge, color, gloss, guise, cover, loop hole, starting hole, how to creep out of, salvo, come off, way of escape, handle, peg to hang on, room locus standi, stalking-horse, cheval de bataille, cue, pretense, put off, dust thrown in the eyes, blind, moonshine, mere pretext, shallow pretext, lame excuse, lame apology, tub to a whale, false plea, sour grapes, makeshift, shift, white lie, special pleading, soft sawder, ostensibly, alleged, apologetic, pretended, ostensibly, under color, under the plea, under the pretense of, under the guise of.

Cunning

N cunning, craft, cunningness, craftiness, subtlety, artificiality, maneuvering, temporization, circumvention, chicane, chicanery, sharp practice, knavery, jugglery, concealment, guile, doubling, duplicity, foul play, diplomacy, politics, Machiavelism, jobbery, backstairs influence, art, artifice, device, machination, plot, maneuver, stratagem, dodge, sidestep, artful dodge, wile, trick, trickery, ruse, ruse de guerre, finesse, side blow, thin end of the wedge, shift, go by, subterfuge, evasion, white lie, juggle, tour de force, tricks of the trade, tricks upon travelers, espieglerie, net, trap, Ulysses, Machiavel, sly boots, fox, reynard, Scotchman, Jew, Yankee, intriguer, intrigant, floater, Indian giver, keener, repeater, cunning, crafty, artful, skillful, subtle, feline, vulpine, cunning as a fox, cunning as a serpent, deep, deep laid, profound, designing, contriving, intriguing, strategic, diplomatic, politic, Machiavelian, timeserving, artificial, tricky, tricksy, wily, sly, slim, insidious, stealthy, underhand, subdolous, deceitful, slippery as an eel, evasive, crooked, arch, pawky, shrewd, acute, sharp, sharp as a tack, sharp as a needle, canny, astute, leery, knowing, up to snuff, too clever by half, not to be caught with chaff, tactful, diplomatic, politic, polite, cunningly, slyly, slily, on the sly, by a side wind, diamond cut diamond, a' bis ou a blanc, fin contre fin, something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

& Sophistry

N intuition, instinct, association, hunch, gut feeling, presentiment, premonition, rule of thumb, superstition, astrology, faith (supposition), sophistry, paralogy, perversion, casuistry, jesuitry, equivocation, evasion, chicane, chicanery, quiddet, quiddity, mystification, special pleading, speciousness, nonsense, word sense, tongue sense, false reasoning, vicious reasoning, circular reasoning, petitio principii, ignoratio elenchi, post hoc ergo propter hoc, non sequitur, ignotum per ignotius, misjudgment, false teaching, sophism, solecism, paralogism, quibble, quirk, elenchus, elench, fallacy, quodlibet, subterfuge, subtlety, quillet, inconsistency, antilogy, a delusion, a mockery, and a snare, claptrap, cant, mere words, lame and impotent conclusion, meshes of sophistry, cobwebs of sophistry, flaw in an argument, weak point, bad case, overrefinement, hairsplitting, intuitive, instinctive, impulsive, independent of reason, anterior to reason, gratuitous, hazarded, unconnected, unreasonable, illogical, false, unsound, invalid, unwarranted, not following, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsistent, absonous, absonant, unscientific, untenable, inconclusive, incorrect, fallacious, fallible, groundless, unproved, non sequitur, it does not follow, deceptive, sophistical, jesuitical, illusive, illusory, specious, hollow, plausible, ad captandum, evasive, irrelevant, weak, feeble, poor, flimsy, loose, vague, irrational, nonsensical, foolish, frivolous, pettifogging, quibbling, finespun, overrefined, at the end of one's tether, au bout de son latin, intuitively, by intuition, illogically, non constat, that goes for nothing.

Untruth

N untruth, falsehood, lie, story, thing that is not, fib, bounce, crammer, taradiddle, whopper, jhuth, forgery, fabrication, invention, misstatement, misrepresentation, perversion, falsification, gloss, suggestio falsi, exaggeration, invention, fabrication, fiction, fable, nursery tale, romance, absurd story, untrue story, false story, trumped up story, trumped up statement, thing devised by the enemy, canard, shave, sell, hum, traveler's tale, Canterbury tale, cock and bull story, fairy tale, fake, claptrap, press agent's yarn, puff, puffery (exaggeration), myth, moonshine, bosh, all my eye and Betty Martin, mare's nest, farce, irony, half truth, white lie, pious fraud, mental reservation, pretense, pretext, false plea, subterfuge, evasion, shift, shuffle, make-believe, sham, profession, empty words, Judas kiss, disguise, untrue, false, phony, trumped up, void of foundation, without- foundation, fictive, far from the truth, false as dicer's oaths, unfounded, ben trovato, invented, fabulous, fabricated, forged, fictitious, factitious, supposititious, surreptitious, elusory, illusory, ironical, soi-disant, se non e vero e ben trovato, where none is meant that meets the ear.